The British Student Taekwondo Federation are pleased to announce their summer competition for 2009. You are invited to design a new BSTF T-shirt to be available from the beginning of the next academic year. Three top prizes are on offer for the best designs as chosen by the BSTF committee. The design can be anything you like but would preferably incorporate the BSTF Logo in either of its incarnations. Colours, sizes, and design are completely up to you. Good luck to everyone!

Prizes

1st prize - a winning t-shirt design, as well as free attendance at the BSTF Easter Fight Camp in Aylesbury next year!

2nd and 3rd prize - a free t-shirt of the final winning design, as well as free entry to any BSTF One Day Fight Camp in the next academic year.

Conditions

By submitting your design you agree to abide by the terms and conditions of entry. Your design will be used by the BSTF for promotional activities as well as any other purpose seen fit by the organisation. No cash alternative will be given in lieu of prizes. Prizes are non-transferable and are valid for only the next academic year, unless at the discretion of the BSTF committee. Any and all entries are assumed to be the sole work of the individual. Entry deadline is midnight on October 3rd 2009 (revised). Any entries submitted after the competition deadline will not be considered.

Hello all,

Master Suh has confirmed the schedule for the BSTF Korea trip this summer.

The Dates : 29th June - 18th July

Training for 7 days with the Kyung Min University Taekwondo team - ranked one of the top 10 Korean university teams (www.kyungmin.ac.kr).

The BSTF team will participate in The 7th ChunCheon Open International Championship 2009. This is in the world top 5 open championship and an official WTF ranked Open. This will take place between 11-15th July in Chun Cheon city, 200km from Seoul.

There is a planned Seoul Ak mountin trip and Gang Rung beach trip, and also a trip to Seoul and training in the Kukkiwon.

So far there are 13 confirmed students... if anyone wants to know more or is interested, please notify Master Suh as soon as possible.

Kind regards,

Master Suh and the BSTF committee

Four international level coaches, three days, 20 hours solid training, 90 students staying in dorms, 60 further students training for just a day, one sports centre with one huge hall and an athletics track... those are basic facts of fight camp, yet ask anyone who was there and it was so much more!

Easter weekend saw the 8th annual BSTF Fight Camp held in Aylesbury at the Stoke Mandeville Paralympic Sports Centre. Despite the credit crunch hitting students hard, many could still afford the £55 fee for training and accommodation for a weekend’s fun and excitement. For many university students this was the first time they had met their fellow student Taekwondo practitioners from other universities in an atmosphere of cooperation rather than competition.

The BSTF National Championships were only a month before but all rivalries had been set aside for a weekend of hard track-training, Taekwondo, and night-life. That is, apart from some (well deserved) bravado from current university champions, UWE (University of West England).

Track training on the Friday night was a short and sharp shock to anyone who thought they were going to be in for an easy weekend. Four hours of advanced sprint training and conditioning on the athletics track left those new to Fight Camp in some doubt as to whether they could last the whole weekend!

The next morning saw a further hour’s track training before breakfast. Many were exhausted and yet the weekend was only just beginning...! A hearty breakfast and some stretching exercises later, the full 7 hours Saturday training of sport Taekwondo and martial arts drills began. All aspects of Taekwondo were covered; from poomsae to advanced Olympic sparring techniques; from practical self-defence to stretching principles; and from nutrition advice to Korean meditation. The day was long and intense, with a few students experiencing for the first time the true nature of the sport side of Taekwondo – the famed 4+ hours of Korean endurance training...

The Saturday night saw a time for students to relax, despite many walking funny after a long day’s cardio and stretching! A Chinese restaurant was block-booked for those attending the camp, and dutifully almost a hundred students tucked into the all-you-can-eat-buffet. Some students went out and partied the night away in town, whilst others got an early night for a repeat of the hard training the next day.

That night some local kids intent on causing trouble were in for a huge shock. A small group of kids on their Easter break prowled the Stoke Mandeville Stadium intent on causing trouble. Believing the dorms to be empty they smashed a window in an effort to gain access to the seemingly deserted accommodation buildings. A rude shock came when they were greeted not by an empty dorm, but by an awoken Birmingham Taekwondo squad, with sparring equipment and black belts hanging up for effect! The poor kids scarpered in fear, and what must have been running through their minds at that time is priceless.

Sunday track training started as usual, only for an impromptu 5 (or so)-a-side football match between the universities to kick off. There were some scores to settle after the Nationals, and Southampton University arose top team on the day, with UWE and Oxford not far behind.

After breakfast training carried on as normal with a heavy cardio/sparring session for the black belts lasting almost three hours, and a few were looking worse-for-wear by the end. After lunch the annual BSTF Breaking Competition took place, with breeze blocks and wooden targets galore for the students to demonstrate the power and technique they have gained through Taekwondo. One student attempted to break two breeze blocks with one strike, whilst many saw off single breeze blocks with ease. This was followed by demonstrations from the coaching staff, showing off their talents in the field of breaking with multiple technical breaks, amazing many of the students present.

After a weekend such as that, many friendships were made, phone numbers and online contact details swapped, and fond farewells waved by the many students now returning to the four corners of the UK.

Our thanks go to the many instructors for donating their time and effort and making this yet another successful Fight Camp enjoyed by all! Instruction came from BSTF Head Coach (former Pan-American Team Coach, and 7th Dan International Kukkikwon representative) Master Suh Ki-Young; also from 8th Dan International WTF Poomsae Referee Grand-Master Tony Vohra, as well as from former Korean National Champion and Korean Navy Team Coach, 6th Dan Master Bae Dong-Jin (Surrey University Team Coach) and Master Apdoli, ex-Iranian team member and Coach of Kwon Taekwondo, the second place winning team at the BTCB Nationals 2008.

To read a full report from the 2009 BSTF National Championships, see the Nationals page (click here).